WINDHOEK – Did you know that making your money work for you maximises your earning potential whether or not you receive a salary increase, decide to work overtime or look for a higher paying job.
All this is possible through either investing part of your hard earned income or saving it up for that all important goal for the year 2014. In light of this, Standard Bank Namibia would like to encourage the general public to get into the habit of saving and investing. “Although it may sound similar, saving and investing is not the same thing. In short saving is storing your money, while investing is growing your money,” says Standard Bank Namibia’s PR and Communications Manager Surihe Gaomas-Guchu. Investing is all about making your money work for you. It is essentially a different way to think about how to make money at the end of the day. “It should be emphasised however that investing is not a get-rich-quick scheme,” stresses Gaomas-Guchu.
One of the biggest differences between the rich and not so rich, is that wealthy people earn interest, while everyone else pays interest. “It is therefore important to realise that money is a tool that can help you achieve your goals. In order for you to reach true financial independence you need to have your money begin to work for you and not you to work for your money. Investing is the way to go to grow your wealth,” she adds.
Gaomas-Guchu provided some tips on how to make your money work for you:
1. Budget
The most important way to change the way you handle your money is to budget. When you are budgeting you are making your money do what you want it to do. By assigning each dollar to a category you are controlling where your money goes and what it does. This will help you to begin to reach your financial goals.
2. Get Out of Debt
Do you know how much money you are paying in interest each month? How much of your monthly budget is being eaten up by student loans, car payments and credit card bills? If you could take all of that money and put it into an investment account, it is amazing how quickly you could save for your goal and other things that you want. Debt often becomes a burden and limits the choices that you can make. One of the best things you can do with your money is to get out of debt and stay out of debt.
3. Save Your Money
Once you have freed up all that extra money from paying off your debt you need to begin saving aggressively. There will be a point when the money you have will earn more than you make in a month. This takes quite a bit of money and in order for this to happen you need put a large amount away each month. Once you have a six month emergency fund saved, you will need to begin investing your money. This is how you can grow your wealth effectively. Additionally saving money can help you be prepared to handle the ups and downs that will happen throughout your life.
By Staff Reporter